The present invention relates to a flight control system for a flying object which appropriately controls a flight altitude during the unmanned flight of the flying object.
In the photography from the air above or the measurement from the air above, the information which cannot be acquired by the photography from the ground or the information which cannot be acquired by the measurement on the ground can be acquired, and the photography is possible in an off-limits area, or the information in an area where measurement is difficult can be acquired. Further, in recent years, an image pickup device can be mounted in a small flying object and the photography can be performed from the air above by a remote operation in an unmanned manner due to the improvement in the performance of the remote controlled small flying object such as a tiny plane or a small-scale helicopter, or the like, the improvement in a remote operation technology, and further, the improvement in the performance of the image pickup device, the acceleration of miniaturization, and others. Furthermore, an autonomous flight can be also performed in accordance with a preset flight schedule.
To make the small flying object fly by a remote operation or fly autonomously, the accurate positional information of the small flying object itself during the flight is required.
As a means for acquiring the positional information, a GPS position measuring instrument has recently spread so that a geocentric coordinate (plane positional information) can be easily measured. Moreover, the reduction in size and weight of the GPS position measuring instrument has advanced, whereby such an instrument can be easily installed in a flying object and others.
Although the GPS position measuring instrument can measure a geocentric coordinate with high accuracy, but its measurement accuracy in regard to a height from a ground surface is poor. An area where the small flying object flies is not necessarily flat, and an altitude of the small flying object must be controlled in accordance with the undulation of the ground surface, the architectural structures, and the building structures when there are the undulation of the ground surface, the architectural structures, and the building structures.
Therefore, to improve an accuracy for the height measurement, another measuring instrument for measuring a height to the ground surface must be additionally prepared. However, an on-board capability of the small flying object is extremely limited to several hundred grams because of the flight ability of the small flying object, and mounting various kinds of measuring devices is difficult.